


a pirate's life for me

by originalPseudonym



Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, i cant believe it's 2015 and i used song lyrics in a fic, it's different i swear
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-07
Updated: 2015-08-07
Packaged: 2018-04-13 09:29:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,507
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4516635
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/originalPseudonym/pseuds/originalPseudonym
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>And to think that this whole time she's been jealous of a dead girl.</p>
            </blockquote>





	a pirate's life for me

Max realizes that she never really knew much about Rachel Amber. She still doesn't. She doesn't know what her voice sounds like or if she has any weird quirks. And when it comes to her personality, Max is nearly clueless.

The few things that Max does know tell her nothing – at least nothing that can't be guessed. She knows what Rachel looks like and what she wears from the pictures. Max knows that people loved her, and now she knows that someone didn't care about that at all.

She knows that Chloe has pictures of her in her room, tucked away in corners and shoved in boxes. Max finds them everywhere, not so much as strewn about but hidden, kept safe. She finds them in Chloe's wallet, in Rachel's clothes, on Chloe's phone. Max knows that Chloe loved Rachel Amber.

Max knows that she is jealous.

It's horrible. The sting of self-loathing is much worse than that of jealousy, and she experiences it every time the thought occurs to her. But she can't help the feeling, even if she has no right to it. When Chloe says things like _my angel_ in reference to Rachel, it's easy for Max to forget that she dropped out of Chloe's life for five years. It's easy for her to forget that jealously is not an emotion that she is entitled to.

And to think that this whole time she's been jealous of a dead girl.

Chloe's lying on the ground, sobs wracking her body. Max can hear her blood rushing in her ears. Both their hands are muddy from digging through the dirt, and Chloe smears the mess all over face when she digs her palms into her closed eyes.

Max has seen Chloe cry before — twice in the past few days alone, including the time this morning where she lie dying in an alternate timeline.

But she's never seen Chloe cry like this, not even when they were kids. She's never seen Chloe gripping herself like she's desperate for something to ground her, never heard Chloe choking on her own tears. She’s never seen it before, and Max has no idea what to do.

It doesn't help that her own brain is going haywire – Max was so sure that Rachel was alive, and she was convinced that her gut feeling was to be trusted as the truth. But Rachel is dead, has been dead, and now Chloe is sobbing over her decaying body. She's sobbing over her angel's decaying body, far more human than Max thought despite the fact that she never even knew her.

Max never will know her, now. It is this thought that pushes her to kneel behind Chloe and hug her. She hugs her hard, but they're both shaking so much that the grip isn't as strong as Max intends it to be. Chloe is asking Max questions that she can't answer, and it causes her hold to slip even more.

Chloe shudders violently, and Max shoves her face in the girl's shoulder in an effort to stop her own tears. She doesn't know if she's crying over Rachel or Chloe or a combination of the two, but she supposes that it doesn't really matter.

Chloe is still choking out unanswerable questions and aimless threats through grit teeth. Max shushes her, but the noise sounds as weak as she feels.

Max screws her eyes shut as tight as she can, breathing in the smell of Chloe's shirt. The scent of cigarettes actually manages to clear her head a little bit, which doesn't make much sense at all — but she isn't about to question it. She closes her eyes and starts humming.

Max may play the guitar, but she is by no means a vocalist. Her burning throat probably doesn't help the matter. It is because of this, combined with the volume of her crying, that it takes Chloe so long to recognize what Max is humming.

Once she does, she stills. Max panics a little at Chloe's lack of movement, and she has to fight against the urge to rewind, to let Chloe cry until she can't do it anymore.

But instead she continues on, her humming gracelessly transforming into singing. "Yo ho, yo ho," she breathes. "A pirate's life for me."

They used to sing it together, loud and off-key. Word for word. They'd sing the lines about extorting and pillaging, even though Max never really wanted to participate in that part of the pirate lifestyle. She doesn't think Chloe wanted to either, regardless of what she'd say otherwise.

Max still knows the words after all these years, but she doesn't sing them with nearly as much power as she used to. Despite that, she doesn't stop.

It's probably inappropriate, given the circumstances. It's stupid, Max knows, and it's always been stupid, but it's the first thing that popped into her head. And if she can make Chloe stop crying, she doesn't care how stupid it is.

Chloe turns in her arms, and Max feels her heart break all over again when she catches sight of her bloodshot eyes. She stops singing in the middle of a line about burning a city because her voice dies in her throat.

Chloe brings her knees out from under her and sits facing Max, her legs spread out to bracket Max's own knees. Max watches Chloe watch her, and Chloe swallows down one of those aftershock sobs before parting her lips to speak.

"Keep going," she says, as vulnerable as Max has ever heard her. Max nods shallowly, moving to mirror Chloe's position. She places her legs over Chloe's thighs, and the action nearly brings them sitting on each other's laps.

Chloe tugs her hat down on her head, her movement still a little shaky. "Trying to make a move on me during a time like this?" Chloe tries to tease. "I knew you could be ruthless, but damn."

Max clears her throat, easily ignoring her friend's jab. When she resumes the song, her voice somehow manages to crack even more than it did before.

"We burn up the city," Max says, more than she sings. "We're really a fright." She tries to channel that old sailor voice that they used to do when they were kids, and she sees the ghost of a smile on Chloe's lips. "Drink up me 'earties, yo ho."

It finally looks like Chloe may stop crying, but her eyes drift over to Rachel's shallow grave. Max tries to recapture her attention – tries to sing a little louder — but Chloe cuts her off.

"I thought she was alive, Max," Chloe whispers. "I thought we were gonna find her."

Max's hand isn't steady when she wipes away a stray tear on Chloe's face with her thumb. She cups the side of her face, gently moving her gaze away from the grave.

"Don't," Max commands. "You don't want to remember her like that. You know she wouldn't want you to."

Max can tell that it takes some effort, but Chloe manages to stop struggling against her hold. She still goes without meeting Max's eyes, slumping forward until her face rests in the crook of Max's neck. Max wraps her arms around Chloe, unsure of what else to do with them.

"After we take care of this-" Chloe starts, voice muffled. "After that Prescott _prick_ is dead, we've got to get out of here."

Her breath blows hot against Max's neck. "This place is no good," she continues. "Arcadia Bay _deserves_ to get wiped out by a freak tornado." She buries her face even deeper into Max's neck. "This place is fucked," she declares. "We've gotta leave."

 _We can't_ , Max wants to say. _You know we can't_. Instead of saying anything though, she just tightens her arms around Chloe.

Chloe must sense her thoughts anyway, because she sighs into her neck. "Let's go, Caulfield," she says, leaning away from Max. She sounds exhausted, and she probably is. It's been that kind of week.

With a sigh of her own, Max gets off Chloe and hauls the girl up with her. Chloe slides her arm over Max's shoulders as they walk away from the grave and toward her truck, and even though Chloe doesn't outright say _thank you_ , Max can guess what she means by the gesture.

Max knows that it won't take long before Chloe's sadness turns into rage, so she winds her arm around Chloe's waist in a useless attempt to preemptively reel her in.

Chloe doesn't guess her motivation, from what Max can tell. As they near the car, Chloe tilts her head down toward Max, who still has to strain to hear Chloe's whispered words.

"Aye, but we're loved by our mommies and dads. Drink up me 'earties, yo ho."

Max swallows, breathes in a deep breath. Rachel Amber is dead, and Max thinks that even if she can't save Arcadia Bay, she can at least help Chloe avenge her angel.

"Yo ho, yo ho," Chloe murmurs, "A pirate's life for me."

**Author's Note:**

> A few disclaimers that I probably should have put at the beginning:
> 
> -I've always been terrible at writing sad things so sorry if this boring  
> -I had to look up the lyrics to the pirate song  
> -I also have no idea about the context of the pirate song and I don't know where it comes from  
> -I haven't actually played the fourth episode yet, so. I just know what happens
> 
> But I hope it was (semi) enjoyable besides all of that! I might write more for life is strange after episode five comes out.


End file.
